United States joins India, Brazil on list of “declining democracies”

This is not good news for the United States. The world power has just joined Brazil and India on the list of countries labeled “declining democracies”, according to a benchmark report on the matter, published Monday, November 22, across the world. The reason for Washington’s entry on this list: a degradation observed during the second part of Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House. Globally, more than a quarter of the population now lives in a so-called retreating democracy, and around 70% if we add the so-called authoritarian or “hybrid” regimes.

This trend of democratic degradation has continued unabated since 2016, according to the annual report of the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization International IDEA. Updated annually, its list of declining democracies already included India, Brazil, the Philippines as well as two European Union countries – Poland and Hungary. A third European nation, Slovenia, was also added this year.

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Even if the United States remains “a high level democracy”, the American decline is linked to the decline in the country’s indicators in terms of “civil liberties and government controls”, explained Alexander Hudson, one of the co-authors of the ‘study. International IDEA cites in particular the “historic turning point” of the electoral challenges to the presidential election of November 2020 by Donald Trump and “the decline of congressional inquiries into the president’s action between 2018 and 2020”. “We classified the United States as ‘in decline’ for the first time this year, but our data suggests that the episode of decline began at least in 2019,” said Alexander Hudson.

One of the most worrying developments on a global scale

Covering half a century of democratic indicators and following most countries in the world (around 160), International IDEA classifies them into three categories: democracy (including “democracy in decline”), “hybrid” regimes and authoritarian regimes. “One of the most concerning developments regarding democracy on a global scale, “International IDEA secretary general Kevin Casas-Zamora told AFP.

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With seven nations now, the number of countries where democracy is seen as declining has doubled in nearly a decade. Two countries that were on the list last year (Ukraine and North Macedonia) have left because the situation has improved. Two others, Mali and Serbia, were excluded because the two nations are no longer considered democracies. For the fifth consecutive year in 2020, the number of countries moving in the direction of authoritarianism has exceeded the number of countries in the process of democratization. An unprecedented situation since the organization’s data began in the 1970s and which should continue in 2021.

In 2021, 98 democracies, 20 “hybrid” regimes, and 47 authoritarian regimes

Burma will indeed be downgraded from the rank of democracy to that of authoritarian regime. And Afghanistan and Mali switch from hybrid regimes to authoritarian regimes. Zambia, now classified as a democracy, is the only country to have positively changed categories this year. For 2021, the provisional score of International IDEA identifies 98 democracies – a number at the lowest for several years – 20 “hybrid” regimes including Russia, Morocco or Turkey and 47 authoritarian regimes, including China, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Iran.

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By adding the retreating democracies and the hybrid and authoritarian regimes, “we arrive at 70% of the world population. This says a lot about the fact that something serious is happening on the democratic quality”, underlines Kevin Casas- Zamora. International IDEA has also confirmed its findings from last year, according to which more than six out of ten countries have taken problematic measures for human rights or respect for democratic rules in the face of Covid-19, because they were “illegal , disproportionate, without time limit or superfluous “.

More than nine authoritarian regimes out of ten are concerned, but also more than 40% of democracies. “The pandemic has clearly accelerated certain negative trends, especially in countries where democracy and the rule of law were already suffering before,” said Kevin Casas-Zamora.